


A Little Bit Playful & A Lot More Clueless

by lepouletfou



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Love, Slice of Life, cute idiots, lotsa fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-18
Updated: 2016-09-18
Packaged: 2018-08-15 15:30:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8061811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lepouletfou/pseuds/lepouletfou
Summary: Judy’s grandpa isn’t too keen on foxes, so Nick and Judy decide to have their own fun with this knowledge. Hijinks ensue, and Nick realizes that his feelings for Judy run a lot deeper than platonic.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gunslinger99](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gunslinger99/gifts).



> For a prompt from @ragingwerewolfdude on tumblr asking how Nick and Judy deal with her racist grandfather. Lotsa sarcasm and eyerolls.

  _“Y-You think I’m beautiful?” Cher Hareowitz asked meekly, the rabbit’s voice stretched delicately over realization._

_For a moment, Josh’s features pinched, his mouth teetering off to the side, feigning mockery. But then his muzzle dropped entirely, and his expression was replaced with one of shy adoration. “Yeah...yeah. Uh - You know you’re gorgeous, all right? And popular, and- uh, and-” he turned, redirecting himself, - “but this is not, you know, why I come here. This is a good learning experience for me.” He nodded a little too earnestly. The up-down movement of his head attempted to suppress further love dribble, but the adoration never left his eyes._

_“You already said that,” Cher replied, face aglow with elation._

_“Well, I wanna help out Mel. Eh, h-he’s the only one who cares about me,” he stuttered._

_“That’s not true.”_

_“He’s not?”_

_“No,” she shook her head softly, droopy ears cascading this way and that._

_“Are you saying...” Josh’s gaze flicked down, steeling himself before somehow gaining the fortitude to finish, “... **you** care about me?”_

_“Josh-"_

_But before she could playfully whack a paw over his shoulder, the act was cut short on account of Josh’s lips pressing firmly against hers. He briskly pulled her muzzle into his, interlocking them for merely a second, camera panning out on the staircase of their Califurnia mansion-_

“Huh, and there it is,” Nick lamented, watching the two rabbits hobble through their confession.

Judy whipped out a finger to tap the spacebar, freezing the frame. _Click._ “Yup, and there it is. Kiss of the decade!” she squealed excitedly, laptop pushed back and perfectly poised on a tiny paw. She turned to Nick with a glint in her eye, “Soooo, what did you think?”

“This movie is very uncharacteristic of you.”

“Because it’s not Claw and Order or some crime noir? I can like other things, you know. It’s called having _layers_ and _character depth,_ Nick,” she scoffed, palms facing skyward.

Sarcastic metaphor aside, he had to hand it to her. Throughout their friendship, there wasn’t a day where Judy failed to floor him. Years of conning gifted him the ability to read mammals, but just when Nick had her pegged, she’d peel back another layer of her personality for him to reassess. It hit him like thunder in a desert. Always unexpected, but the aftermath would leave him satiated. He reveled in every new thing he discovered, burrowing under each layer she offered to either fluster or annoy her, and for some reason, god knows why, doing _that_ satisfied him even more. It evoked a weird sense of gratification, and...something else that he couldn’t quite place yet.

“Earth to Nick. What was _your_ opinion of the movie?”

He blinked, trying desperately to smother his mockery. _Ahh, sweet bun. You’re too wide-eyed and adorable for your own good._ He settled for argumentative logic in its place.

“What do I think of the movie? Erm, weren’t they brother and sister?” he jabbed, clearly indifferent to the couple’s iconic Hollywood love confession.

She quipped back with an eye roll. “ _Step_ brother and _step_ sister, Nick. They weren’t biologically related.”

“Fine, I’ll give you that one. But isn’t he a thousand years older than her? In grad school or something? Kinda creepy, if you ask me.”

“Noooo, you’re getting it all wrong. Cher is sixteen and in high school, and he’s eighteen and in his freshman year of college. Although, I guess in _real_ life Prowl Rudd was like, what, twenty-six when Alicia was only eighteen? But meh, whatever,” she flitted a hand in front of Nick’s snout, “their eight-year age difference doesn’t show on camera.” She shrugged her shoulders, shrinking a bit. 

Nick could tell his derisiveness had shown through his mask, his skepticism of the movie clearly being a factor in Judy’s deflation. But it was only ever a _little_ bit enjoyable getting under her skin like that. “Well, no wonder you bunnies in the burrows love this movie so much. It’s all about incest and getting shipped off young, huh?”

“Hey,” she jabbed her elbow into his side, smirking when it elicited a tiny yelp from his maw, “Admit it. You _kind of_ enjoyed the movie. It’s not a big deal.”

“Ow. Yes, fine. I admit it, I did kind of enjoy it, albeit a little begrudgingly. Happy now?” he said, rubbing a paw against his stomach.

“Besides, _you_ are eight years older than me, slick. So who’s the creep, huh?”

“What are you implying? We’re just friends, we’re not...” his sentence straggled slightly, and something that started as a soft flutter came to a violent rattle against his ribcage. He stilled himself before waving the feeling away. “We’re not...romantically involved in any way.”

Judy’s bottom lip folded in on itself under two front teeth, the tension working its way up to her brows which furrowed against each other in a stand-off. “Yeah. Oops,” in a perfect ministration, her lips reverted to its initial smirk, “you’re right. Totally different.”

He’d investigate that weird feeling later.

“Oh look! Speaking of the burrows...look who’s calling,” Judy lifted her phone and waggled it in the air, a photo of her parents gleaming back at him as their ringtone cut through the atmosphere. She swiped the lock screen. “Hey mom! Hey dad!”

“Hey hun! How’s life treatin’ ya? Did you get the carton of carrots I sent out to you today?” Bonnie’s face was pressed against the screen, the angle permitting Nick a hilarious full view up her twitchy pink nose, and he willed himself not to laugh. He shoved a pillow over his mouth to muffle one though, just in case.

“Yes, I did, mom! And I already have _plenty_ of carrots. You don’t have to send them to me anymore. Thank you, but I live right across the street from a grocery store, you know.”

“Well, when you said you were eating carrots out of a frozen dinner package, I nearly fainted. Stu, hold Jenny will you?” the older bunny ruffed, handing a swaddled burrito with two long ears poking out of its blankety folds.

“Yeah...but that was four months ago...” Judy grumbled, “and you’ve been repeatedly sending me carton after carton until nothing can fit in my apartment anymore.”

“Judy, can’t the ZPD give their only bunny cop better living arrangements? You saved the city for Pete’s sake.”

In the background, Stu chimed in, bouncing one rabbit in his arms and dangling two precariously off his leg. “Oh heck, Bon, you know it’s just her out there. She doesn’t need all that space in a flashy apartment, right Jude?”

“I _know,_ Stu, but what about when she starts a warren? That place is tiny!”

Judy Hopps with kids? Now _that_ was hilarious. Nick interjected, “Yeah speaking of a warren, you really need to get out of this place, Carrots.”

“Nick, whose side are you on here?” she guffawed, and added, “Mom! Geez. A warren? I’m only twenty five. There’s no need-”

“Oh my sweet heavens! I almost forgot - is Nick there? How is he doing?” Bonnie’s gaze wandered to the side of her screen, eyes sweeping around in a futile effort to land on Nick. Evidently, the basic concepts of webcams and depth perception were lost on her.

“He’s, uh...” Nick could see Judy’s eyes dart back and forth between him and her phone. Acutely conscious that he was practically lying on her bed, and how that must have appeared, he shot up, back stiff and ramrod straight. Judy breathed, turning her phone, “He’s great! Say hi, Nick!”

“Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad.” He knew they always got a kick out of that one.

Judy rolled her eyes for the millionth time that night.

“Hey, Nick! Keepin’ our Judy safe out there, ‘ole buddy ‘ole pal?” Stu asked.

“Well, I try my best. Do what I can. She’s hard to stop, determined and stubborn as she is,” Nick supplied with a wink.

“Gee, thanks,” Judy glowered, tongue darting out, meticulously hidden from the vantage point of her parents. 

“Haha, sounds like Jude the Dude all right. But, it looks like she’s in good paws.”

“Yeah, and you make sure to keep her ears perky!” Bonnie added. Knowing that even she recognized he was somehow a variable in their daughter’s happiness completely warmed him, and Nick absorbed the words, feeling an odd fizzle pooling in the shell of his ears. “Oh, and be sure to help finish all those blueberries and carrots! They’re almost out of season, so you need to eat them all before they go bad,” Bonnie admonished with a forefinger, hard-pressed and pointing almost accusingly.

Judy and Nick both nodded. “Affirmative." 

“Hey! Is that Trudy!?” someone shouted in the foreground. An old, frail, ghost of a man wobbled into frame, hunched over and in on himself. A raisin at best, his face was pulled down by various wrinkles, and Nick chuckled inwardly as his train of thoughts led him to those of cereal and sun-dried fruits.

“Pop-Pop, it’s _Judy._ And yes! It is,” Bonnie groaned in frustration.

“Tell her to stay away from that fox boyfriend of hers!! I don’t trust him. They’re made by the devil, you know! That’s why they’re red!” He shook his cane in the air menacingly, unaware of the little ones on the floor scurrying out of its path when he lifted it. Judy watched the scene unfold with eyes so wide they nearly popped out of her skull. 

Ever so amused, Nick retorted, “I was made by the devil? Never knew Maid Marian had a thing for bad boys. But I guess my Uncle Lucifur _was_ a foxy devil in his prime." 

“Oh my gosh, I’m _so_ sorry Nick. Pop-Pop, that’s disgustingly specist! What happened to trying to understand one another, our differences, and - wait, what? He isn’t my boyfriend!”

“Aww, too bad.” Nick massaged the base of his throat, and thoughts he’d never voiced suddenly fought their way to the surface. But instead, in a playful attempt to maintain the charade, he rested his chin in between Judy’s ears and nuzzled the top of her head. “And here I thought we weren’t keeping it a secret anymore,” he joked. 

What came out of Judy was a barely audible _meep_ , her mouth so firmly shut that her lips were oppressed into a thin, straight line. _Oh_. More points for him, but he’d definitely be in for a strong berating after this call was over. 

Bonnie sighed, too fettered by the raging old rabbit to notice the sudden intimacy between them. “Really, I apologize on behalf of him, Nick. We do _business_ with a fox now. Things have changed. But I guess you can’t reason with crazy...no matter how...” another breath, wincing at the vitriol Pop-Pop kept spewing, “...close of family they are.”

Pop-Pop clambered closer to the screen, squinting at their closeness, “Get away from her, you fox! Trudy, you’re just going to let him do that to you?”

“He’s not going to _eat_ me, Pop-Pop!” Judy bemoaned. The edges of Nick’s lips quirked at the double-entendre.

“Oh cripes, Bon, will you shut your grandpa up? He’s going to wake up the kits!” 

But this only signaled the raisined rabbit to increase his volume in frightening decibels, “WELL! When I was a young mammal, I NEVER-”

“You know what guys? I’m going to go. This is clearly not a good time right now. Bye!” Judy vehemently tapped the ‘end’ button, and threw her phone to the foot of the bed.

It was overwhelming to even fathom what an actual Hopps reunion would entail. That five-minute phone call was an assault in itself, and Nick could tell Judy was still spluttering from all the calories burned. He slipped his head out from between her ears and turned to face her. “How do you deal with all of that?” he asked in disbelief.

“Nick...”

“What’s ‘a matter, Fluff?”

“I am SO sorry. The things he said were horrible. I can understand if you’re hurt, or totally don’t want to come to the Tri-Burrows next week because of all of this...”

“Carrots, it’s a-ok. I’m fine.” He pinched his thumb and pointer finger together, raised against his muzzle for further effect.

“No, it’s really not fine. Oh sweet cheese and crackers, it’s so frustrating! Really? I mean, I _know_ he heard my speech at your graduation a month ago, so I don’t know why he would act like this.”

“Really. I. Am. Fine,” his cadence came out in staccatos. “And the Burrows? I’m still coming with you, by the way. Regardless of how... _riveting_ it all sounds.”

This placated her a little. “Well, I wanted to make sure. Just in case.”

“Not going to change my mind,” Nick paused, shifting his expression, “Sooooo, your Pop-Pop thinks I’m your boyfriend now, huh?”

“Pfft, Nick! He only thinks that because we spend all of our time together.”

“Ahh, I see. And does that mean I get to do things like this more?” Much akin to the movie they had watched, Nick tugged on her wrist, hurtling her right into his chest, “Oh, _Cher Hareowitz!_ I’m an angsty emotional sap, and I love you! You’re _sooo_ beautiful! Love me back!” he laughed as his chin cradled the base of her head, feeling soft grey paws put-puttering against his shirt. 

“Ack! Nick-hah- _stop_ -eep!” Her squirming was purely theatrical though, her resistance laced with giggles and half-hearted pushes. He gave him extra kudos for the fact that the bunny was actually _enjoying_ this.

“I’d stop, but then I wouldn’t get to see that ugly little face you make whenever you’re uncomfortable.”

“Jerk!”

“Sorry, Carrots.”

“Well, I mean, to be honest, I actually...don’t mind it...” she mumbled incoherently. Then, her muzzle snapped to attention, plotting something as her eyes slid into a half-lidded smolder. “Actually, Nick...I think I _really_ really like it,” she purred. She was actually purring. And, with a paw-shove fueled by something more full-hearted, she pushed it against his chest. Not sure if it was her actual strength that provoked it, or the implication of it all, but Nick found himself stumbling back on her bed, weakly propped up on liquid-y elbows.

“U-Uh, you good there, Fluff?”

“Hmm, not really,” her svelte body started crawling up his, and _shit_ , how long was she going to keep playing this act, because now _he’d_ be the dope that lost his own battles and could get flustered easily. “Nick, I think you know how bunnies can get, when certain... _foxes_ like to tease all the time...” her face was _close,_ purple orbs shooting straight into his, summoning every clever comeback he had out through his pupils and letting it dissipate in the air between them.

“Erm, uh, _well,_ you know how it is.” _Really, Nick? A-Game. Now._

Immediately she whipped herself off of him, back pressed firmly against the wall, and shoulders shivering from laughter. “HAH! Oh, _Nick!_ Y-Your face,” she creased her nose and lifted her eyes to mimic his shocked expression, “I got you, GOOD!”

He breathed a sigh of relief. Was it relief? “H-Hey! I did not look like that - but, yeah. Hah. Got me cornered there for a sec, Carrots.”

“Mhmm. Two can play at that game, and I’m not the only one who can joke around here, _sweetheart_.”

There it was again. All thunderstorm and spitfire and everything unexpectedly Judy, he began to wonder if there was a border where desert met rainforest.

But again, it was an issue worth investigating another time.

“All right, all right,” he finally said, “let’s just focus on your specist grandpa, and how we’re going to handle him when we go down there next week.” 

“Deal.”

* * *

 No, the family reunion was not going to kill Nick. Pop-Pop was not going to kill Nick. _This_ was. 

Judy’s Volkswagen Rabbit was heaving as it snaked its way up the gravely hill, jolting forward every now and then as if to reassure him it wasn’t entirely losing the war with gravity. 

“Hmm, and you didn’t want us to take my car _why_?” He asked, reaching for the safety handle, the cushions, the seat, _anything._ It was fruitless since he was grappling for items that were attached to the very thing that would fall apart anyway. 

“Your car is much too nice for the burrows. You’d be a plain show-off bringing such a slick city car into the country,” she responded, gaze fixated ahead and maneuvering around each sharp bend. 

The radio crackled as they passed Zootopia’s city limits and into the countryside, and what ultimately emerged from the garbled vibrations were the remnants of Carrie Undeerwood’s _Jesus Take the Wheel._ He would have laughed at the irony if he weren’t so focused on not dying.

“I can feel your fear, Nick. You foxes. So _dramatic_.”

“It’s my turn to drive after the next rest stop.”

“But you don’t know country roads like I do.”

“You’re a horrible driver. You once almost swerved the meter maid mobile off the road when you heard a Gazelle song,” he replied dryly.

The car reached the hill’s zenith, and wavered dangerously as it lurched ahead. Nick held his breath. Their angled perch so precarious he felt a slight exhale would send them tumbling forward. “Fine,” Judy scowled, “but I’m going to complain about your driving skills just as much as you did mine.” 

“Whatever. Now eyes on the road, rabbit, lest you want to turn this trip into a roar-a-coaster.”

She zipped downhill with just enough mirth that Nick was convinced she did it just to get to him.

* * *

It wasn’t until two hours, a Bug-Burga, and three pawpsicles later, that he was able to return to a normal breathing pattern. With paws resting comfortably on the wheel, Nick asked, “So what’s the plan on dealing with gramps?” 

She rotated in her seat, the red-stained pawpsicle stick peeking lazily from her lips like a cigarette. “Hmm. Just do what you did over the phone. We can be all close and smarmy. Let him think what he thinks and let him freak out. That’ll teach him,” she huffed.

“You essentially plan on giving old Pop-Pop there a heart attack?”

“Oh, shush. He’s been through Fur War I, Fur War II, two different pacemakers and pretty much all the Dust Voles in the 30s. Nothing’s gonna stop Pop-Pop.”

“...Somehow...that doesn’t reassure me about your plan, Carrots.”

“Look, if there’s one thing that’ll teach him a thing or two about prejudice and specism, it’ll be this.”

“By egging him on and just cuddling with you at the dinner table? It seems a little-” he stopped. Why was he arguing about this, again? Snuggling to prove a point was far from punishment, and it definitely did not necessitate the reaction he was giving her. But he wasn’t sure why Judy was _so_ determined to carry on the performance.

“Hmm?”

“Nothing. Just...thinking.”

“Ahh, the old adage.” She extended an arm, her fingertips lightly grazing his wrist. “If you’re worried about Pop-Pop, don’t be. He may be old and specist, but he wouldn’t be able to hurt you. I wouldn’t let anyone hurt you, ever." 

The sky shifted, and fused white into pink, melding together like syrup onto shaved ice. The darkness slowly seeped its way through the windshield, refracting the light, and dappling the color on Judy’s face. There was a characteristic about nighttime that added much more complexity to seemingly simple, two-dimensional things. A play on shadow and light, a trick of the eye, and instantly a phrase like _I wouldn’t let anyone hurt you_ had more depth than needed for two platonic friends. 

But he’d save it. For later.

“Thanks, Judy.”

* * *

And yet he was still mulling over her words, hours after, at the dinner table. He took his fork and gently prodded it against the squishy surface of his mashed potatoes. Pushing it in, watching as the gravy wormed its way around the prongs in harrowing drips. So concentrated on this simple act, he figured he lost his wits.

“Nick, you’ve been awfully silent! How you holdin’ up over there?” Bonnie smiled over in his direction, slicing carrots into edible pieces for the toddler next to her.

He snapped out of his trance and aimed to refocus. “It’s great! This dinner is amazing, Mrs. Hopps. Thank you.”

“What happened to calling me _mom?_ You can still call me that, you know.”

“Stop hitting on the fox, Bon. That’s our Jude the Dude’s job,” Stu said, nudging Bonnie in the ribs.

“Right. Thanks, _mom_. This dinner is great,” Nick’s tone slipped a little, vaguely deadpanned. In the background, several Hopps children snickered.

“Oh, c’mon, dad. You know it’s not like that!” Judy chortled, heaping a few dozen more peas onto her plate. “We’re...um... _just_ friends, really.”

“Well, Pop-Pop-” Bonnie glanced over her shoulder in high alert mode, her pitch downshifting - “seems to think so. He’s been going on and on about this visit and being ridiculous with all of his sayings.” She raised delicate eyes to meet Nick’s, and added reassuringly, “But don’t worry, hun. He’s secluded in the living room. He won’t be joining us for dinner.”

“Ahh, that’s nice, really. But I wasn’t worried.” 

“Sure, Nick. Not like it wasn’t written all over your face or anything,” Judy commented, reaching over yet again to circle a thumb against his knuckles. “It’s going to be okay. We got this.”

“By the way, Bon. You didn’t tell our guest of honor here what’s for dessert!” Stu grinned excitedly.

Bonnie clasped her hands together, realization washing over her like a beam of light, “Oh yeah! _We_ are all having hot blueberry pie. A la mode! Judy here told me how you love blueberries, and how much you love ice cream, so I decided to combine the two for you!” 

Nick’s ears pricked up, the brightness bouncing off of Bonnie and reaching his face, tugging the corners of his lips. “Wow. I have died and gone to heaven,” he smiled.

“See!? And you thought the country wasn’t going to be fun,” Judy exclaimed, paws sticking out in front of her, as if showcasing her parents on the pedestal of some Town & Burrow magazine.

“Uh, I swear I never said anything like that! Right paw. Scout’s honor!” Nick assured. “Really, Bonnie. Stu. I’ve been looking forward to this all week.” He glared down at Judy, poking a claw into her tender backside. He was pleased with himself when he evoked a tiny _yip_ from her. 

She swatted his paw away. “Psh. _Nick_ here was just scared that-” but the end of her rejoinder never came. Instead, she shot up from her seat, the wood of the chair screeching against the floorboards.

“Heh _exactly_ what was I scared of, Carrots?” he asked, but soon found that she wasn’t turning back to look at him. “Uh, Carrots?” In fact, his question was ricocheting off of her and had no influence in her gaze, which stayed fixed across the table. Actually, at least two hundred pairs of eyes were pulled in the direction Judy was looking, like a force of gravity had-

“WHAT is that FOX doing here!? Trudy! Trudy! Step away slowly!!”

_Oh. Him._

Her scowl remained steady, looking straight ahead. Her arms flailed to the side, searching blindly for Nick’s arms before finally grappling his wrists and forcefully wrapping them around her waist. “This _fox_ is Nick, Pop-Pop. And I am NOT afraid of him. He is my best friend, and I am not letting you get to him.”

Nick gripped her waist a little tighter, applying a fraction more fortitude to the affection.

“Nick! You get away from my granddaughter! Ya hear? I don’t know what _sneaky_ method you used to get her to be your girlfriend, but I don’t trust it!!” His cane was trembling again, but this time the older rabbit looked too confounded to raise it. 

“Oh. _You know._ Being a devil and all, I got all these evil tricks up my sleeve...” he labored for sarcastic and condescending, but he felt the act was too plastic now. His wits stretched thin over how close his snout was to the flat of Judy’s stomach.

“Cheese and crackers, Stu, get him out of here!” Bonnie threw back her dinner plate in utter disdain. “I’m _so_ sorry, Nick. We should’ve just had him stay over at Uncle Terry’s tonight.”

“And who _cares_ if he’s my boyfriend or whatever, Pop-Pop. He’s a mammal just like you and me, and it doesn’t matter what species of animal he is.” 

A six-year old bounced in her seat next to them, chirping loudly. “Kiss your boyfriend, Judy! Kiss him!”

The phrase was contagious, and it quickly prompted several girl bunnies to chant encouragement to Judy. Cheering her on in giggly tones and high-pitched shrieks. The boys covered their eyes and stuck forks in their mouths. Bonnie and Stu just shrugged and tried to block Pop-Pop from darting in. 

“Well, _the show must go on_!” Judy whispered. She leveled with Nick’s muzzle, yanking at the collar of his shirt. 

“Wait, _Judy!_ I-” 

But she didn’t seem to hear him. In a theatre-induced haze, she smashed her lips securely onto his, and though it lasted just a few moments, Nick was entirely drenched in her. Water washed all over him, filling the broken capillaries of the desert floor. It thundered and filled and saturated his thoughts. His emotions swirled and pooled in a storm, which in fact, had worked a watery path into every limb and turned his bones to liquid. He was satiated.

They pulled away from each other, and Nick, dumbfounded, excused himself.

He was pretty sure what this feeling was now, and there was no need for further investigation.

* * *

Judy traipsed into the bedroom with a gait holding more aggression than any rhino in the ZPD. “What was that about? It’s been thirty minutes. I thought we were going to continue playing it up-” 

“Sorry! I panicked. I couldn’t keep pranking him like that.”

“That’s ridiculous. _You’re_ the one that started all this weird false affection in the first place! Don’t be mad now that I can play the game just as well as you can!”

Hustled, once again, by his best friend.

“Carrots - er, Judy - I can’t-”

“ _What_ is it, slick? Did I go too far? _Cripes_ , it was the kiss wasn’t it,” she slumped onto the bed and ran her paws down her face. “I shouldn’t have done that. Was it that bad? I thought I was doing so well...” 

She made a face that was all too much heartbreaking, and Nick suspended his inner blubbering, straightaway feeling bad that his mishap had made Judy so unsure of herself. “Look, I’m really sorry. It _wasn’t_ bad at all!”

“Ugh, spare me, Nick. I guess I’m not as good as putting on an act as you are.” 

This gutted him. Even when he teased her with his affections, there was always a sense of realism in there that he could never shake. “Listen, Judy. I only freaked out because it was all starting to feel a little too real. You’re _good_. I got caught up in dumb male hormones and flipped out a little, that’s all.”

Her ears flicked up, which was...a good sign? “Too real? But does that mean...umm...?”

“That I like you? Heh. Probably. Actually, I think I like you _a lot_ , and, um-”

“Wait. You do?”

“To put it more bluntly, Carrots, _yeah._ I think I pretty much love you, and that kiss was- my god, I don’t even- all I know is, is that I was too much of a dumb fox to realize things before. Especially between all the teasing and jokes and weird platonic things that we say to each other.”

She leapt off the bed, closing the distance between them. “And...are we... _still_ platonic?”

“Well, after this? I was hoping not...but I totally understand if you’re not in the same place. And...” he tried not to lock eyes for too long, unsure of what he would find in hers, “...and think that this is all too weird now.”

But before uncertainty could fully settle in and pinch his ribcage, Judy’s fingers wound around his tie and pulled his face to hers. Their lips met again, and the kiss brushed away any doubtfulness in one gratifying sweep. Nick could practically feel Judy smiling against his mouth. She had wanted this just as much as he had. _God, I really am an idiot._

“Thank _Marian_ , Nick,” she sighed into him. “And here I was, thinking I was Cher Hareowitz, agonizing over something that wasn’t even an issue.” 

“Oh, so I’m Josh now?” he scoffed in jest, cradling her muzzle in the palm of his hand. 

“Yes _,_ duh. You’re the angsty emotional sap who _looooves_ me,” she cooed.

“Ahhh, shut up. We’ll figure that out later.” 

She took his paw in hers. “Okay, fine. Now will you come down and have some blueberry pie? Everyone’s waiting.” 

He gave her one last peck before nodding earnestly. “You don’t have to tell me twice, Carrots.”

And he didn’t need to figure it out later. It was completely Judy - tangible and spitfire and rain that he could all hold in the palm of his paws. There was no need for later. Not when he already knew for sure what that feeling was.

**Author's Note:**

> Clueless is one of my favorite movies, so I hope you enjoyed the ref. Visit me on tumblr! @lepouletfou


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